Saturday, July 20th

10mi*/65min - Frenzy in the Forest 5mi trail race - 29:05, 1st place. Jen and I decided to drive out to Sunappee to do this short trail race that's part of the Western NH trail series. It was a very well organized event with lot's of participants that were doing the whole series. We warmed up on part of the course and it was not technical and not very hilly. This would be a little misleading as the 2nd half of the course had a good climb and some rooty, twisty single-track. I noticed one fast looking college aged kid on the starting line. I took it out hard at the gun and he tried to go with me. After a minute of running a started to open up a gap. I would run alone for the rest of the race. I felt good and was moving well over the fairly easy terrain, around half way there was a good long hill to run. I struggle a bit on this climb and didn't hammer the downhill that hard. There was a long straight away and I looked back and could see the young guy back there. Time to get moving! On the single-track I put the pedal to the metal and lost sight of him again. I ran into the finish with what I thought was a commanding lead, but after I crossed the line the kid (Noah), was only 13 seconds back. He was much closer than I realized! At first, I thought he must have missed some of the course, but now I realize, he hammered at the end where I just kind of cruised. I talked to him after the race and he will be going to Williams in the fall. I declined a cool down with him so I could watch Jen finish up her race. She had a fun time and liked the course. I think we'll both do a few more of the races on the series.